Paramount Arts Center Celebrates 80th Birthday with Re-Creation of Opening Night

In a small Appalachian town in northeastern Kentucky, a historic theatre, Paramount Arts Center, is getting ready to celebrate its 80th birthday. The amazing part of this celebration is that the theatre ALMOST didn't exist. In the late 1920s, Paramount Studios chose what they thought to be the one booming city in each of 48 states. The theatre was intended to be one of the first transitional theatres built to show silent films made by Paramount Studios. But along came the Depression and construction came to a halt. Paramount Studios wanted to scrap the project altogether, but an Ashland-based company picked up the plans and continued building the theatre--though somewhat scaled back from its original design. And during the three years it took to complete the project, "talkies" arrived. So the Paramount Theatre opened its doors on Sept. 5, 1931 to show its first-ever movie, a talking film called "Silent."

The Paramount Theatre showed movies until 1971 then transformed to a performing arts center. In early 2000, the Paramount significantly expanded and is now a 57,000 square foot facility that averages 120 performances a year to include Broadway musicals, cirque shows, concerts, international orchestras, dance troupes, local performing artists and once again has a movie screen and shows classic films. The theatre seats 1,400 people and serves a Tri-state area of 350,000 in KY, OH and WV. More than 50,000 children get to attend live performances each year through the Youth Education Series.

This year's birthday celebration is Saturday, Sept. 10 and will be a re-creation of the Paramount Opening Night, along with a day of nostalgic events. Docent-guided theatre tours, historical pictures and artifact slideshows will run throughout the day. A Commedia Dell'Arte performance is bringing mural characters to life. Antique cars, vintage style shows, games for kids and a cake walk are a few of the activities. At 6 p.m., movies will begin to include "Laurel and Hardy" and "Huckleberry Finn." Admission is 40 cents for adults and 10 cents for kiddies.

For more details, please call or visit our website at paramountartscenter.com.